I commend this object to the prayers of our Church; more especially to the prayers and sympathies of the Ladies' Association in connection with the English Presbyterian Church; upon them the degraded females of Ragshai have particular claims. I announced to you in my last letter the appointment of a native brother to help me in preaching the Gospel in the vernacular. A hopeful commencement will, I trust, be soon made in this most important department. At present other duties, no less important and necessary, take up much of our time and strength. But although we are not able to do much in this direction yet, let me assure you that we shall endeavour to do the best we can. For two or three days we have been visiting a Mohammedan of respectable character and ability. He is by birth a Hindu, but being an intelligent and well educated man, he soon perceived the folly and sinfulness of idolatry. In this state he remained for many years, when he fell in with some Mohamme

dans, who read and expounded to him the sum and substance of the Koran. Perceiving that Mohammedanism inculcates the unity of God and the evils of intemperance, he believed in it. At present under the convictions of sin, he feels somewhat uneasy and restless, and strives to get quit of it, but with only partial success. .. May the example of his excellent Christian master, as well as the instructions which he receives from us, be blessed to the conversion of his

soul.

You will be glad to hear that I have succeeded in getting an old house belonging to a Roman Catholic, who has left this place. We have to pay 20 rupees rent per mensem, besides laying out 72 rupees for repairs and

some additions for the accommodation of all your agents. In all we shall have to pay 312 rupees this year, or 26 rupees per month for twelve months. I trust I am right in putting down this sum in my monthly bill, as the house-rent for native agents has been sanctioned in the list which was sent to me by Dr. Hamilton and Mr. Hugh Matheson. Last Saturday this part of Bengal was visited by a terrific storm, in consequence of which 250 persons have been killed, and 150 wounded, besides 400 cattle destroyed, and several large trees rooted out of the ground. The heavy and dangerous squall swept away part of my hut, and threatened further danger, but the Lord said to the fierce wind, "Be still," and a few hours afterwards there was a perfect dead calm.

I have not called on Mr. —as yet, as he has sustained an irreparable loss in the premature death of an only son, who was my fellow-passenger during part of the voyage. It appears that on last Saturday he had gone out to shoot some wild fowls in a native boat, which was upset during the violent

CORFU.

MANY members of our Church have all along taken a deep interest in God's ancient people, and of late it has been pressed on the Synod that new efforts should be made on their behalf. Partly in consequence of this urgency, some were disposed to transfer Mr. Charteris to Italy or some other station where the Jewish field is more promising, and last Synod gave notice to the Committee to effect this transference should they deem it desirable. The result, however, was an expression from so many quarters of the loss which the cause of the Gospel, and which our Presbyterian countrymen would sustain in the removal of your missionary from Corfu, that the Committee entered into a correspondence on the subject with the colonial committee of the Free Church of Scotland, which resulted in that committee agreeing to pay £70 a-year towards his salary, so as to secure the continuance of his services. The decision, which retains Mr. Charteris in his present sphere, has been hailed with the liveliest satisfaction, not only by the soldiers and civilians of our own communion, but by evangelical Christians of every class in Corfu.

In a recent letter, Mr. Charteris makes some remarks on the present state of feeling amongst the Hebrew race, which, coming from such a quarter, are worthy of all attention; and the suggestions with which he concludes are earnestly commended to the originators of this mission-the ladies of the Presbyterian Church of England:

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It is true, I do not expect much fruit from this small corner of the Jewish field; but, take a wide survey of the Jewish world, and point to tangible and permanent results at any place. I have not lately read of them in any of the news of the Churches, and in the Jewish periodicals I see little of that poverty of spirit which brings the soul near to the kingdom of heaven. On the contrary, I see no

A SCOTTISH SABBATH.

A SECOND distinguishing feature in the Sabbath-keeping of Scotland consists in the fact, that we consider the entire Sabbath to be specially and equally consecrated to religion. The length of the sacred day we believe to be just the same as the length of common days. We know nothing of the distinction of "canonical hours," as if one part of the day were in any degree more hallowed than another; and all such distinctions we are accustomed to regard as a pernicious and presumptuous tampering with Divine rule, a narrowing of our charter-not indeed of inglorious idleness, but of holy rest. But while we look upon every part of the Sabbath as a dedicated thing, in the sense of our abstaining from all such secular employments and recreations as would be lawful on other days, its religious exercises are wisely and happily diversified; and in this allotment of the Sabbath's holy work, very much is left to the discretion of individuals and of churches. This statement, I believe, may do something to remove one injurious and prevalent mistake regarding our Scottish manner of keeping the Lord's-day. Were I to describe a well-spent Sabbath-day, such as is spent by thousands of men in Scotland who are the salt of our land and the life and glory of our churches-such as was spent by the best of the English Puritans two hundred years since, often leading them to confess, at the close of such a day, "Surely if this be not heaven, it must be the way to it"-I should paint it in some such manner as the following:-The good man rises from his slumbers to realise the fact that it is God's day of sacred rest, and to open his mind to its devout associations. There is an unwonted stillness in the streets, and in the fields all around him, which that day only brings. The care of the body is not unheeded, and there is even a double attention to cleanliness and to taste in his attire; secret devotion is more prolonged than on other days, as it is more undisturbed, the family is in due time summoned around the frugal meal, it being perhaps the only day in the week in which they all meet at the same board; kind words and affectionate counsel s are interchanged; events in the family history are alluded to, and made the theme of edifying reflection; family-worship follows, and on this occasion the little

family choir is unbroken, and sends up its full-voiced praise to heaven. The time has come for joining the companies that are already crowding to the houses of prayer. A brief interval, and a second frugal meal follows, and there is another ascent to the temple to worship God. Then comes the happy Sabbath evening, in which the Chris tian parents gather their children around them for religious instruction, and for recalling and reviewing the lessons of the sanctuary. Domestic affection has time to expatiate and grow in that Sabbath atmosphere; the Bible and other religious books are read; psalms and hymns are joyfully sung. Mercy joins her work with that of piety; the sick and the sorrowful are visited and comforted; neglected children are taught in the Sabbath school; unreclaimed masses ere evangelised in the mission district. The family once more re-assembles at the evening meal, and the Sabbath is closed with family-worship, meditation, and secret devotion; and as the members of the household pass away to their nightly rest, it is felt that its hours have not been wearisome or unprofitable, but that they have in truth been all too short for the blessed work that was to be done in them. Of all the bold pictures in which certain of our modern novelists have indulged, there is none in which they have allowed their imaginations a more wild and unwarranted licence than in the pictures with which they have entertained their readers of a Sabbath in a Scottish family. These pictures have been creations rather than caricatures. And there have been travellers who have become writers of fiction when they have touched on this subject, and who have quite equalled the novel-writers in the liberties they have taken with the simple truth. One writer, presuming, we suppose, on the safe distance of his readers from the scene which he describes, gravely informs them that in the city of Edinburgh all the window-blinds are kept carefully closed during the whole of the Sabbath, as if to attemper the gloom of the house to the gloomy state of mind of its inmates, and describes the little children as cowering under a vague sense of awe, and dreading to indulge even an innocent smile. Men who write thus may safely be affirmed never to have spent a single Sabbath-day in a res ligious family in Scotland.-Dr. A. Thomson.